For a while there, I considered this my favorite Kirby game. I don't know that I'm as head-over-heels for it now, even among classic-era Kirby, but I still find myself fond of it.
The reason I loved it so much in the first place is because it would've been one of the first Kirby games I owned. I've mentioned that Nightmare in Dream Land was my first Kirby game, which I would've gotten sometime in 2003-2004. Gaming-wise, this was a time when I only had regular access to Game Boy and Computer games, so my options to further explore the franchise were a bit limited. Dream Land 2 would've been an easy favorite by default, taking the high concept of the ideas advanced in Kirby's Adventure (of which Nightmare in Dream Land is a direct remake) and building upon them with the introduction of Animal Helpers. I know now that Sakurai's idea to advance the Adventure formula was to build up full beat-em up movesets for the abilities, but Shinichi Shimomura's idea of laterally expanding the movesets is another logical way forward. Introduce new polymorph characters with different core movement functions, and have Kirby's abilities take on new contextual variations based on the interactions of those characters. Good stuff.
It's also a fairly lengthy game given its context. Remember that the only other mainline Kirbies I would've had access to early on were Nightmare in Dream Land and Dream Land 1 - both quick adventures that lend themselves naturally to speedrunning and have artificially-inflated lengths through their Extra Modes. Dream Land 2 was quite long by comparison. Particularly since the copy I picked up Used had a bad battery and couldn't retain a save. I tried many times to beat the game in a single go as a kid, getting as far as Dark Matter Phase 1 before running out of juice or my game forcibly resetting. I have since beaten it in full a couple times over (in single-session playthroughs, even), but as a kid, circumstances made it seem impossibly long.
Speaking of Dark Matter, that entity's easily my favorite of Kirby's classic villains, and still one of the most aesthetically cool-lookin' baddies in the series. I know Nightmare Wizard predates Dark Matter, but Nightmare always felt like a Saturday Morning Dracula. Fun as a one-off baddie, but not particularly compelling as a foil to guide series direction. Dark Matter is that first hint Kirby ever really had at something sinister lurking beneath the surface, and proof positive that Kirby was capable of handling horror elements within the confines of its cute paradise. Sure, Dark Matter doesn't actually bleed until the next game, but something about that monocular shadowy ronin always seemed terribly off, even before getting into its tendency of robbing people of their free will. Kirby as a series has since made more compelling antagonists that contrast its simple protagonist, but I'll always love Dark Matter as the originator of this trend.
It's a little thing, but I always appreciated that, since this game had to be designed around the monochromatic Game Boy, the blocks that can only be destroyed by certain abilities all use symbols rather than colors to communicate the required ability. Colors wouldn't have worked well for me and my colorblindness, and a lot of the design choices are fairly logical - a series of dots to represent the puncture marks from Needle, a block with diagonal lines to represent light reflecting off an Ice cube, etc. Ninty's starting to embrace this design ethos more in modern game design (very rare that you see a color puzzle used these days that doesn't also incorporate some glyphs or patterns), but it was a rarity back in the 90s/00s, so its usage here felt all the sweeter.
Also, this is perhaps one of the more underrated soundtracks in the series, to my way of thinking. A ton of this music is high-energy and peppy, with strong foundational melodies, yet this is one of the least-likely mainline games to be highlighted in Modern Kirby's myriad remixes. Makes it all the sweeter when Kine's Theme or Dark Castle shows up as incidental music.
But so, with all this said, why don't I consider this my favorite of this era anymore? Largely a question of legacy. Kirby is a series in which everything is rooted within its own nostalgia, even as it drives itself forward to explore new worlds. The main mechanical engine for this design is Super Star - "past" and "future", as I've noted - but a lot of the sentimentality comes from how its characters and worlds are expressed in Shimomura's Dark Matter trilogy. This specific element is within Dream Land 2's composition, but it would crescendo with each subsequent entry, coming to its dynamic peak in Kirby 64. As a consequence, when I look back upon Classic Kirby, Super Star and 64 easily outshine what I might be looking for in Dream Land 2.
Still, DL2 remains strong in my heart. I think it's a comfort food game for me, in a lot of ways that other Kirby games aren't. This in some ways feels like Kirby at its least gimmick-driven; while I know Adventure is a more obvious pick for this arbitrary title, I think of Adventure as more of an NES technical showcase than Kirby at its baseline - but more on that when I get to that write-up. DL2 is the broadest expression of what Kirby generally wants to do - experiment with a high-concept idea, present a game world that's easy to approach but holds its own intrigue, and just all around represents a great time. I dunno that it's a title that'll win over a lot of people these days, but a favorite it remains for me.
The reason I loved it so much in the first place is because it would've been one of the first Kirby games I owned. I've mentioned that Nightmare in Dream Land was my first Kirby game, which I would've gotten sometime in 2003-2004. Gaming-wise, this was a time when I only had regular access to Game Boy and Computer games, so my options to further explore the franchise were a bit limited. Dream Land 2 would've been an easy favorite by default, taking the high concept of the ideas advanced in Kirby's Adventure (of which Nightmare in Dream Land is a direct remake) and building upon them with the introduction of Animal Helpers. I know now that Sakurai's idea to advance the Adventure formula was to build up full beat-em up movesets for the abilities, but Shinichi Shimomura's idea of laterally expanding the movesets is another logical way forward. Introduce new polymorph characters with different core movement functions, and have Kirby's abilities take on new contextual variations based on the interactions of those characters. Good stuff.
It's also a fairly lengthy game given its context. Remember that the only other mainline Kirbies I would've had access to early on were Nightmare in Dream Land and Dream Land 1 - both quick adventures that lend themselves naturally to speedrunning and have artificially-inflated lengths through their Extra Modes. Dream Land 2 was quite long by comparison. Particularly since the copy I picked up Used had a bad battery and couldn't retain a save. I tried many times to beat the game in a single go as a kid, getting as far as Dark Matter Phase 1 before running out of juice or my game forcibly resetting. I have since beaten it in full a couple times over (in single-session playthroughs, even), but as a kid, circumstances made it seem impossibly long.
Speaking of Dark Matter, that entity's easily my favorite of Kirby's classic villains, and still one of the most aesthetically cool-lookin' baddies in the series. I know Nightmare Wizard predates Dark Matter, but Nightmare always felt like a Saturday Morning Dracula. Fun as a one-off baddie, but not particularly compelling as a foil to guide series direction. Dark Matter is that first hint Kirby ever really had at something sinister lurking beneath the surface, and proof positive that Kirby was capable of handling horror elements within the confines of its cute paradise. Sure, Dark Matter doesn't actually bleed until the next game, but something about that monocular shadowy ronin always seemed terribly off, even before getting into its tendency of robbing people of their free will. Kirby as a series has since made more compelling antagonists that contrast its simple protagonist, but I'll always love Dark Matter as the originator of this trend.
It's a little thing, but I always appreciated that, since this game had to be designed around the monochromatic Game Boy, the blocks that can only be destroyed by certain abilities all use symbols rather than colors to communicate the required ability. Colors wouldn't have worked well for me and my colorblindness, and a lot of the design choices are fairly logical - a series of dots to represent the puncture marks from Needle, a block with diagonal lines to represent light reflecting off an Ice cube, etc. Ninty's starting to embrace this design ethos more in modern game design (very rare that you see a color puzzle used these days that doesn't also incorporate some glyphs or patterns), but it was a rarity back in the 90s/00s, so its usage here felt all the sweeter.
Also, this is perhaps one of the more underrated soundtracks in the series, to my way of thinking. A ton of this music is high-energy and peppy, with strong foundational melodies, yet this is one of the least-likely mainline games to be highlighted in Modern Kirby's myriad remixes. Makes it all the sweeter when Kine's Theme or Dark Castle shows up as incidental music.
But so, with all this said, why don't I consider this my favorite of this era anymore? Largely a question of legacy. Kirby is a series in which everything is rooted within its own nostalgia, even as it drives itself forward to explore new worlds. The main mechanical engine for this design is Super Star - "past" and "future", as I've noted - but a lot of the sentimentality comes from how its characters and worlds are expressed in Shimomura's Dark Matter trilogy. This specific element is within Dream Land 2's composition, but it would crescendo with each subsequent entry, coming to its dynamic peak in Kirby 64. As a consequence, when I look back upon Classic Kirby, Super Star and 64 easily outshine what I might be looking for in Dream Land 2.
Still, DL2 remains strong in my heart. I think it's a comfort food game for me, in a lot of ways that other Kirby games aren't. This in some ways feels like Kirby at its least gimmick-driven; while I know Adventure is a more obvious pick for this arbitrary title, I think of Adventure as more of an NES technical showcase than Kirby at its baseline - but more on that when I get to that write-up. DL2 is the broadest expression of what Kirby generally wants to do - experiment with a high-concept idea, present a game world that's easy to approach but holds its own intrigue, and just all around represents a great time. I dunno that it's a title that'll win over a lot of people these days, but a favorite it remains for me.